Who are you waiting for?

Tonight before I left work I popped into the restroom to clean up, wash my hands etc… I opened the door to find a sink over flowing and about 6 inches of water on the floor. One of the sinks had been plugged with paper towel and the sink left on. I thought to myself “who would do this?” I turned off the water, rolled up my sleeves and started digging out the paper towels that were jammed into the drain. Another employee walked in and saw me elbow deep in the sink and standing in the water. He asked “What are you doing?”.. ” You don’t need to do that, some one else will clean that up.” I looked at him and asked him who? And why would I leave it alone. Just because someone else showed a lack of respect, does not mean that we should.
You see this all comes down to respect. Someone did not have enough respect for our company and thought it would be funny to be disrespectful. Waste of water, paper towels, and someone elses time cleaning up the mess is a total lack of respect.
We don’t run in camp, why? Because you can trip on a guy line and break someone else’s tent.. that is a sign of disrespect. We see trash all over our town.. a lack of respect.. but then again.. some one else will clean it up.. right?
So who are we waiting for? Who is it that cleans up our mess? Who is it that turns off the water? Who is it that repairs the broken tent? Who is that pays for waste and abuse?
One act of disrespect causes a wave of “Some one else” having to react. Some one else cleaning a mess. Some one else… well you get the point.
Scouts and Scouters. The word Respect is not in the Scout oath or Law.. or is it. Don’t you think Every word in the Law has an element of Respect in it? I do.
So who are you waiting for?
One word… RESPECT.

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2 thoughts on “Who are you waiting for?”

The sound of running water is a beaver’s main motivator in building a dam. A scientist once performed a study where they placed speakers beside a beaver dam that were continually playing the sound of running water. The beavers built up their dams by the speaker until it effectively was silenced. The noise drives them mad.

I worked on the staff at YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain for several summers. I stopped by the bathroom in the main building one day on my way to lunch. As I was washing my hands I noticed Mr. Washburn had washed his hands and then wiped down the sink and cleaned up around the soap dispenser.

Now Mr. Washburn wasn’t just any staff guy, he was the Executive Director. In a suit and tie. Wiping down a sink. Now I usually pick up trash (learned that in Scouts) and stuff but I never thought of wiping down a public bathroom area after I used it. That lesson sure stuck with me.

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